Unsolved Script to pull file names from a text file and move or copy them

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Hello,

I am looking for a script for a batch file or powershell that will take a list of file names in a text file, and copy or move them from one folder to another. All other files in the source folder should remain untouched.

The text file just contains the file name and not the extension.

Can you please help?

Thanks!

@bedrock1977 FYI, the file names in the text file have spaced in between each word.

Hello @Bedrock1977 ,

Do all of the files that you want to move have the same file extension? What is it?

Bedrock,

Give this a try and see if it does the trick:

Get-Content .\filename.txt | Foreach-Object { copy-item -Path $_ -Destination "X:\destination path\"}

.filename.txt is the name of the file that has your file names in it

-destination "X:\destination path" is where you want the files to wind up.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Adam

Hey @Bedrock1977 ,

Try something like this...

$files = Get-Content D:\list.txt
foreach ($file in $files) {
    $sourcePath = "d:\source\" + $file + ".txt"
    $destinationPath = "d:\destination\"
    Move-Item $sourcePath $destinationPath
}

Modify $files to point to your text file with the list of filenames.

$files will be an array of names from the source file.

Then you will loop through the array, dynamically building the source path of the file to
be moved. I assumed all the files were .txt files, so it adds .txt to the end of the name.

Modify $sourcePath by replacing "d:\source" with the current location of the files to be moved. (Including the trailing )

Modify $destination by replacing "d:\destination" with the location you want to move the files to. (Including the trailing )

Hey Guys, thanks for the replies. All file types are the (mp4).

Does it matter if the batch file is in the same directory as the source files?

I will give this a try and see what happens.

I tried both methods by typing the script into notepad and saving it as move.bat. The batch file was saved in the same folder as the source .mp4 files, and the text file containing the name of those files I want moved.

When I clicked the batch file to run, it blipped on the screen for a split second. When I check the destination folder, which is in the same directory as the source files, it was empty.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks,
Chris

@bedrock1977

Sorry Chris, forgot to mention the script I wrote is a PowerShell script. You will need to save it as a .ps1 file. It does not have to be in the same folder as the files, it can be saved anywhere.

You will need to change the ".txt" to ".mp4" in $sourcePath

$files = Get-Content D:\list.txt
foreach ($file in $files) {
    $sourcePath = "d:\source\" + $file + ".mp4"
    $destinationPath = "d:\destination\"
    Move-Item $sourcePath $destinationPath
}

Also remember, you cannot double-click a PowerShell script to run it. You will need to open PowerShell and call the script by typing in the path to the script. For example, if you saved the script as MoveFiles.ps1 in a folder on your c drive called scripts, open PowerShell and type

C:\scripts\MoveFiles.ps1

Let me know if this works for you.

Testing GitHubGist for sharing scripts.

https://gist.github.com/mikerodrick/4daeec9a3ce5649193077cb5326dfa1a